Type-writing machine.



N. H. ANDERSON.

TYPE WRITING MACHINE.

PPLIc/Imu FILED MAY 14. :91oy

Patented D915.. I4, ISIIS I Fig-.3-

WITNESSES UNTED STATES PATENT GFFCE.

NILS H. ANDERSON, E MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR T0 THE NOISELESS TYPEWRITER COMPANY, OF MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

TYFERITING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 14, 1915.

b Application filed May 14, 1910. Serial No. 561,416.

To olli whom. 'it may concern.'

Be it known that l, NiLs H. ANDERSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at liliddletown, in` the county of Middlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful improvements in TypelfVriting Machines, ot which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to typewriting inachines, and with regard to the more specific features thereof. to mechanism adapted to positively control the movement of the bearings between the carriage and the part along which the carriage is adapted to travel.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a simple and practical construction of the above nat-ure which will b positive in operation. l

Another object is to provide mechanism of the above character which will be efficient in use and of compact arrangement.

Another object is to provide .a construcf tion of the above nature which will be cheap to manufacture and easy to install.

A further object is to provide an improved` self-contained ball retainer that may be readily installed or removed4 from the inachine.

Other objects will bein part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in thevconstruction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claim. V

In the accompanying drawing, wherein is shown one oi' various possible embodiments of this inventioml Figure l is an elevation, partly in section, of a portion ol a lypewriting machine suilicient to illustrate one application Aof the present invention; Fig. 2 is an end elevation, partlyin section, showing the platen carriage and shift rail: Fig. Il is a. plan view of the blank from which the hall retainer is formed; Figs. 4, 5 and l are detail views at right angles to each otlieipot' a part of the retainer.

Similar reference characters refer to simi lar parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Referring to this drawing in detail, 1 represents a carriage which may be of any well-known construction. but in the einbodiment herein shown is of the style used on the .noiseless typewriting machine. This carriage is provided with upper and lower guide yrails 2 and respectively, spaced apart and coacting with an intermediate shift rail l supporting the carriage and along which it travels.

The upper and lower guide rails and the shift rail l are provided, along their adjacent surfaces, with V-shaped runways, in which are mounted a plurality of anti-friction devices, preferably steel balls 5. balls are held in relative position by means of a retainer (3 ext-ending longitudinally parallel with the guideways in the carriage and shift rail, and containing openings 8, through which the balls extend, whereby they are retained in proper relative position.

While the retainer may be of any suitable material and shape, it is preferably made from a blank such as shown in' Fig. 3, stamped from sheet metal. The blank is generally rectangular with enlarged corner portions 7 connected by longitudinal .and transverse members, defining an open central portion, where the meta-l has been removed in order to lighten the retainer. EX- tending from-one ofthe longitudinalmemf bers at its central portion isa tongueflQ, in

These which a pinion is to be mounted, asheiein tions, the purpose of which will appearhere inaftei'.

Dianietrically opposite in the wall of each hole 8 is a short slit or opening 9 parallel to,

the length of the retainer, for receiving a flat perforated keeper 10, preferably punched out from sheet metal, which receives and surrounds one of tlie balls 5.

Each end of the keeper is split or forked, as at 11, (see Figs, 4 and whereby after it has been inserted in the retainer and perpendicular to the plane thereof at that point, the prongs of each forked end may be bent in opposite directions to hold the keeper in place; and as the runways in the guide and shift rails are of V-shape in cross section, the retainer may reciprocate freely without either the retainer or keeper engaging the same. In this manner the balls are caged and held in relative position and may be removed or installed easily andquickly as an integer. Moreover, the keeper 10 provides a means whereby the balls may be easily removed from the retainer when desired, by an obvious manipulation of the split ends.

Theftongue 12, depending from the central part of the upper side of the retainer,

carriesa bearing sleeve 13 (see Fig. 6) in which is mounted a pinion 11 (see Fig. 1) meshing at one side with a rack 15 secured to the shift rail l, and at .its opposite side with a second rack 16 held between the guide rail 23 and the carriage 1, as shown in Fig. 2, the upper part of the rack being bent rearward for reasons hereinafter set forth. The uiper guide rail?l of the carriage is proiided with a depending .portion 1T normally out of contact with the upper part ofthe retainer, while the lower part of the retainer, as before explained, is benti'orward, as shown at l8,`so that the lower portion thereof lies forward of the bent rack lo. It will thus be seen that `as the carriage is moved along,lr in a letter-spacing direction, the pinion 14 meshing with the"` lixed rack 15 on the shift rail and the movable rack lo on the carriage will carry the retainer (3 along in the .saine direction as the movement of the carriage, but at oneliali' the speed thereof. In this way a gradual slipping or creeping of the balls toward one end of the carriage lsprevented, duc to the variable movement, as when tabulating, and the difference in relative rati-.of speed of the carriage in its backward and forward movement. The creep` ingr of the balls would eventually bind and retard the xnovenient,of the carriage near the end oll its path of travel.

ly the use of the construction herein set all mattei' contained in the above descrip-4 tion or shown in the accompanyingidrawlngs shall be interpretedas illustrative and not in a hxmtmg sense.

It is also to be understood that the lan! guage used inthe'following claim is in-r tended `to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention' herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention, which, as a matter of lanv guage, might besaid 4to fall therebetween.

Having describedjny.invention, what I claim a's new-Sand desire to secure by Letters Patent is: I

In a device of the character described, in combination, a carriage having upper and lower guide rails, a shiftrail therebetween along which the carriage is adapted to travel, bearings between the shift rail land the guide rails, a rack mounted on said shift rail, a second rack between said lower guide rail V.and the body of the carriage, a- "retainer Yfor said bearings. and a pinion carried by said retainer adapted to mesh with both" of said racks, whereby the movement of the bearings .is positively controlled, the upper guide rail of said` carriage having a depending portion adapted to prevent a lateral movement of saidvretainer.

ln testimony whereof l aliix my signature. in the presence of two witnesses.

N l LS l'l. A Nl) ERS( )N.

Witnesses: 

